This invention relates to an integral automatic system for protection and rescue of occupants in crashed automobiles.
Although automotive technology constitutes a complex and very widely developed field in which revolutionizing novelties rarely occur, there are numerous advances that are made gradually, because, among other reasons, the manufacturing volumes and the investments required to introduce said changes do not permit doing it in any other way. One of the outstanding trends in today's automotive industry aims to diminish the severity of traffic accidents caused by collisions of any kind, overturning, etc.
The current state of technology has adopted various solutions intended to reduce the damage caused by the collision and by the projection of the occupants against the structure of the cabin. It is known that it is beneficial to place masses in front of the seats, such as the engine of the vehicle. Proven also is the effectiveness of the use of safety belts which, combined with the use of automatically inflating balloons, constitute means proven to be useful in a considerable percentage of accidents, including those caused by lateral shocks. Also, the new safety requirements take into account the risk created by skidding of the wheels when braking, making use of the principle of measuring the angular deceleration of the wheels to moderate the braking torque so that the wheel will not block.
All these methods, in which the present state of the art can be encompassed generally, are aimed specifically at reducing the intensity of the accident and protecting the driver and occupants from the immediate damage produced by the shock and by the series of impacts set off by it. In the present state of the art there are no means aimed at preventing risks that may arise after the accident is fully over or means that facilitate extraction of the occupants. It is this gap that the system of the present invention seeks to bridge, the novelty of which resides in providing means designed to bring about the activation or joint and progressive cancellation of a series of functions by inclusion of new devices, such as an impact sensor which is actuated at high impact levels, an electronic central control unit, a device for releasing the belts from their anchor, upon actuation by an electrical signal and the incorporation of an electrovalve with an interlock for shutting of the passage of fuel from the tank to the fuel pump upon actuation by an electrical signal.
Besides these devices, other conventional ones can be utilized, such as the electrically actuated centralized locking and unlocking of doors and the electrically operated window lift system.